Beyond 2020, We Have to Come Together as Americans
I started 2020 managing a presidential campaign in my hometown for my longtime friend, Pete Buttigieg. I’m ending this year at work with Heartland Ventures, an early stage investment fund based in the Midwest.
Working in both national politics and startup finance has given me a unique vantage point into many of the problems our country currently faces and how we can get to a brighter future.
So much has happened over the course of this year. A global pandemic altered life for people across the globe, a recession pulled down the economy, millions lost their jobs, and Americans became more polarized than perhaps any moment since the Civil War. It’s been daunting.
This moment is so divisive for a few reasons. First, it seems as though every interpersonal exchange, action, symbol, or choice creates an “us versus them” mentality. News consumption is political. Mask usage is political. Dialogue is thrown out the door and people are brushed aside. It’s more about the side you’re on than anything else.
Second, our system turns state lines into battle lines. Cities and states are associated with a particular hue (red or blue…and some are labeled battleground). People in far-off states are almost treated like a different species when the vast majority of people across our country want many of the same things for themselves, their families, and their friends.
Third, this year has further exposed and stretched the glaring inequality in the American economy. Many people are doing very well through Covid and the recession while many more are struggling to find work and make ends meet in industries that are rapidly changing before their eyes. Both political parties make strong appeals to hard working Americans but with so much distortion and uncertainty it’s hard to feel the results in daily life.
It’s a lot to take in. I believe many Americans want to get past the election and the acrimony and get into a new year with more promise and prosperity. We’re twenty years into this century and it’s hard to decipher where we are going and if this can be another “American Century” like the last one.
I’m hopeful for a few reasons.
First, there’s more potential connectivity than ever before between people, businesses, customers, partners, and countries. Two of the most popular things Washington could take on in the near-term would be reforms making sense of the influence of large technology companies and pushing for large infrastructure improvements across the country. Progress on these fronts would go a long way.
Second, this enhanced connectivity and the accelerated change that has occurred this year will change where people work. It’s not an anomaly that a number of publications and observers are eyeing the end of Silicon Valley and its in-person workforce as we know it. Startups are sprouting up across the country and expanding into new geographies, like the Midwest, and many startups are teaming up with existing businesses, through our model at Heartland Ventures.
As Heartland Ventures looks forward to a second fund, we see immense opportunity in creating conversations between seemingly dissimilar people because we know they are eyeing the same goal and bring different but equally necessary strengths to the table. In periods of change, it’s those people (workers, businesses, and communities) that are willing to step out of their comfort zones to find a path forward and unlock value in new ways.
Third, venture capital and tech investing is ultimately about the future. We’ve invested in companies that will change how people hire, eat, shop, work, build, and deliver goods. All of those seemingly simple things have been changing and are changing at a faster rate than ever before.
Once we get through the pandemic, recession, and election, many things will eventually go back to “normal.” However, we must be prepared for many things to be irreversible.
If we approach this new season by coming together, listening to varying viewpoints, and by building an enterprising American economy where everyone can succeed, there is no limit to what we can achieve.
